Denmark in the South West of WA; Recollections of War (2021)

Douglas Robert Steuart Bader qualified from RAF Cranwell as a pilot officer in June 1930. An aerobatics enthusiast, Bader cared little for the views of his superiors when it came to performing dangerous aerial stunts. Attempting a low altitude roll in a Bristol Bulldog, his left wing clipped the ground and crashed. Surgeons amputated his legs, one above and one below the knee.

'Crashed slow-rolled near ground. Bad show,” Bader wrote in his logbook after the accident.

With steely determination Bader learned how to use artificial legs, and by 1932 he was driving a modified car, playing golf and dancing. He even flew a plane and was judged competent for active service. Despite this, the RAF decommissioned him on medical grounds.

Towards the end of the 1930s, after intervention of Air Vice Marshal Frederick Halahan from his RAF Cranwell training days, Bader was given back his wings.

After a number of successful missions as a fighter pilot against the German planes, Bader was placed in command of 242, a Squadron of mainly Canadian pilots who had lost many comrades during the Battle of France. Bader was able to earn the Canadians’ respect and under his leadership 242 became an effective fighting force.

The Battle of Britain officially began on the 10th of July 1940 and 242 Squadron was soon in the thick of the fighting.

In March 1941, Bader was promoted to active wing commander, in charge of three fighter Squadrons. Now piloting a Spitfire, Bader and his wing of three squadrons concentrated on engaging with and bringing down Messerschmitt 109s. Bader’s wing twice engaged with Adolf Galland, the German fighter ace who would become Bader’s lifelong friend.

During August, doing battle with the twelve 109s, a collision with one sheared off part of his Spitfire’s fuselage. Despite one prosthetic leg being trapped, he deployed his parachute and ejected. Knocked unconscious he woke to find two German soldiers unbuckling his parachute harness.

A model 25 pounder field gun and other equipment on display (at left)

The air force room is where the collection first started. This extensive display features airmen, planes and other items.

Displays as we enter the air force room above.

With numerous paintings and photos lining the walls, there is a portrait of the famous air ace, Douglas Bader, and a sketch signed by Bader. No air force display would be complete without mention of this man. Who was Douglas Bader? At a time when the German forces had advanced through France and were poised to take on Britain, public morale needed a boost. The media found a hero in a tenacious young pilot who a double-leg amputee, had successfully brought down German fighter planes. I will divert to tell a little of his story sourced from History UK.

Signed by Paul Rigby, are two of his newspaper cartoons from the Vietnam War era.

A collection of equipment and personal items, used by air force personnel during the wars together with badges and photos.

A bugle, and a mandolin made by a soldier in New Guinea in 1945, believed to have been made from coconut fibre, and it has mother of pearl inlays made from shells off the beach. A model of a sailing ship, completes the display on this table (above).

A photo of Pilot Officer Roy Alexander Chopping, from Albany, Western Australia at right. He won the Distinguished Flying Cross during WWII.

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Bader was sent to hospital in the French town of Saint-Omer. Despite having only one prosthetic leg, he made a rope out of bed sheets and escaped out of the window, however he was soon recaptured.

After leaving hospital, Bader was invited to visit an airfield by German air ace Adolf Galland. Bader, still missing one leg, was treated with great respect by Galland and was able to sit in the cockpit of his personal 109.

Further humanity in wartime was shown when Galland approached the British authorities and offered them safe passage to fly over another leg for Bader. The operation was personally approved by Hermann Goering, himself a World War I fighter ace.

Following a number of escape attempts while a prisoner-of-war, Bader was sent to Colditz Castle where he remained for three years until the castle was liberated in 1945.

'Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you can’t do this or that,' he once said. 'Never let them persuade you that things are too difficult or impossible.'

Sir Douglas Bader was knighted in 1976. With failing health, he suffered a fatal heart attack on the 5th of September 1982 at the age of 72. Many former comrades and wartime adversaries, including Adolf Galland, attended his memorial service.

See more photos and stories from Recollections of War on the next page

Models of aircraft atop the display cabinets, with signed aircraft painting around the walls.

This cabinet houses John’s parents’ memorabilia. His father, Jim, served as a paratrooper and should have landed with the first group at Normandy on D-Day. However, he was injured on his last practice jump and was sent to Scotland to recuperate. He then joined the Seaforth Highlanders and took part in the Battle of the Bulge before serving out the war in India. John’s mother served with the British Women’s Land Army.

A mannequin dressed in a WWII era Sidcot flying suit. Sydney Cotton was an Australian airman who served with the Royal Naval Air Service during WWI. He designed the suit to protect pilots from the harsh elements related to high elevation, cold temperature flying.

The library room features over 6,500 books on military themes. Military headwear adorns the tops of the bookshelves, and other items of interest are on display here.